The invention is in the field of CAD systems and methods for space planning, interior design and facilities management, as used, for example, by architects, space planners, interior designers and corporate facilities managers for designing and allocating space to the various subdivisions of their clients' projects.
Systems and methods of this general type have been in use for some time. An example in the system commercially available under the trade name SIGMA III from SIGMA Design, Inc. of Englewood, Colo., the assignee of this application. It is believed that other systems of this general type are offered by Calma, a division of General Electric Company, by Computervision of Bedford, Mass., by Intergraphic of Huntsville, Ala., by CalComp, a division of Sanders Associates, and by Prime Computers. Certain aspects of systems of this general type are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,705,410 and 4,275,449. The first patent appears to be directed to a space allocation system for goods, and the second patent appears to be directed to a modeling arrangement for a building layout.
As exemplified by the SIGMA III system identified above, systems of this type can operate by gathering answers to a series of questions to the user, to elicit information such as project data, identification of departments, of available floor space and of furniture and equipment, determination of affinities between departments (i.e., the degree of desirability or undesirability of having departments close to each other), staffing personnel priorities, etc. Typically, there is a stacking process in which the designer, with the help of the system, determines the optimum vertical arrangement of the various departments. In one example, the system displays a stack of floors on the left side of the screen while the right side of the screen displays of column of rows each identifying respective departments. The user can enter the departments on the correct floor using manual, semi-automatic or automatic modes. Once a satisfactory vertical sorting of the departments has been completed, the user can begin the so-called blocking process, in which the user fits together the departments which ended up on a given floor. As an example, in the blocking process the departments which ended up on a given floor are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen while the left side displays the floor plan, and the user can move departments to selected floor areas using manual, semi-automatic or automatic blocking commands. Following this, the designer can begin placing interior partitions and furniture on the floor plan, using the blocking plan outlined as a reference, can place furniture, can create various report, etc. Background information on the SIGMA III system identified above can be found in the following material, where is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification as though fully set forth herein: "SIGMA Design's-SIGMA III," F-M Automation Newsletter, Volume 7, No. 7, July 1984, and the Product Reference Manual of SIGMA Design, Inc. and particularly SIGMA III, SPACE PLANNING/FACILITIES MANAGEMENT MENU, Chapters 7.0-7.11, Version 5.0, July 1984.
In the prior art in which the system makes use of an indication of the affinities between departments, to the extent known those affinities are identified by numerical or letter codes. Similarly, in the known prior art systems which make use of priority ratings, the priority of a given department is indicated again in numerical or letter codes. While this can be useful, it requires the user to read those codes in order to appreciate their significance, and to keep in mind a number of such codes in case the screen displays a number of departments at the same time. Particularly in more complex situations, this can slow down the process, and can lead to errors or other difficulties.
To overcome these and other disadvantages of the known prior art in this field, this invention makes use of color blocks in a particularly efficacious manner which allows the user to tell at a glance at the screen whether the design progress up to that moment is satisfactory, and to get other important information at a glance at the screen. Also in accordance with the invention, the user can switch screen displays between different significances of color so as to get rapid and easily perceivable information about important aspects of the process as the system goes through its various stages.
In a particular and nonlimiting embodiment of the invention, after the system is provided with suitable identification of the various departments, it forms and displays, on a color screen, an affinities matrix which shows, when in a priority color mode, (i) a column identifying departments to which respective portions of a space are to be allocated and the space requirements and relative priorities of the departments, wherein priorities are indicated by respective blocks of priority colors ranging from warmer for higher priority to cooler for lower priority and (ii) the affinity between each pair of departments, indicated by respective blocks of affinity colors which are at the matrix positions corresponding to the department pairs and range from green for high affinity to paler green for lower affinity, white for neutral affinity and red for negative affinity.
For example, the left side of the screen can show a column or rows, one per department, each identifying the name of the department, its number, and its space requirements. The right side of the screen can show a matrix having a row for each department and a color for each department. The intersection of a column and a row of the matrix identifies a matrix element corresponding to that pair of departments. Of course, the diagonal at which the row and the column for the same department meet does not show affinity colors. The screen can also show the name of the project and any file name, and a row of blocks showing the chosen range of affinity colors and numerical designations for levels of affinity. The numbers identifying the respective departments in order of priority can be in blocks colored in priority colors indicative of the priorities which the respective departments have in the space allocation process (for example, highest priority can be assigned to the company president and lowest to the lunch room), and the same priority colors can be shown on the row of blocks identifying the columns of the matrix. The matrix squares can be colored in accordance with the perceived affinities between departments. For example, the matrix square for the president and the v.p. of finance can be colored green to indicate high affinity, i.e., the high desirability of having these two departments close to each other, while the matrix square for the president and the lunch room may be colored red to indicate negative affinity, i.e., the desirability of having these two departments far from each other. In case two different departments perceive their affinities differently, the matrix square for the pair above the 1,1-N,N diagonal can indicate the priority which one of the departments perceives, and the matrix square (or element) for that pair below the diagonal can show which the other department perceives. In that color scheme, called "priority" or "department" color mode, a user can get important information about priorities and affinities at a glance, without the need for reading numerical or letter codes and without the need for alphanumerical or statistical manipulations. For example, the user can get at a glance an overall idea of the distribution of priorities and affinities, an overall idea of any different views between departments as to their relative affinities, an overall idea of whether a lot or a few of the departments have expressed neutral affinities (i.e., that it makes little difference whether they are close to each other or far apart), an overall idea of the distribution of types of affinities (e.g., a need to have many departments close to each other, or a need to have many departments far from each other), as well as other general or more specific information about the priorities and affinities of the respective departments. While there is a natural limitation on the number of departments that can be shown in the affinities matrix at any one time, in terms of screen size and legibility, the matrix in fact can be much larger and only selected windows from it can be displayed at any one time, and the display scrolled through the entire matrix.
In another color scheme, referred to as an affinity color mode, the user can select or "key off" a particular department and have it colored blue to show that it has been keyed off, and the other departments on the screen automatically re-colored in their affinity colors with respect to the selected department. This happens both for the blocks for department numbers at the left side of the screen and for the department number blocks in the row on the right-hand side of the screen, over the matrix blocks. Again, this allows the user to perceive at a glance important information about affinities and priorities. The user can switch between these modes at will, and assign and reassign priorities and affinities.
After affinities and priorities are determined and perhaps manipulated with the help of the colored matrix display discussed above, a stacking diagram can be formed and displayed on the screen, replacing the affinities matrix display. The stacking diagram can show on the left side of the screen a stack of floors in the form of blocks related in size to the available floor areas, and a row of columns at the right side of the screen, each identifying a respective department, its relative priority and its space requirements. Using a manual, a semi-automatic, or an automatic mode a user can move the departments on the correct floors. For example, in the manual mode the user determines where each department should go based on his own judgement, depending on factors such as priorities, affinities and space requirements and availabilities. In a priority color mode for the stacking step, the system colors the number blocks of the department rows in the priority colors, and when a user determines that a particular block should go to a particular floor, a department allocation block is shown within the selected floor block. The size of this allocation block corresponds to the space requirements of the department, and it is in the priority color of that department. In that color mode, the user can tell at a glance the relative priorities of the departments identified at the right-hand side of the screen, what (if any) departments have been allocated to what floors, the priority of each allocated department, and the approximate relative sizes of the allocated departments and the approximate portions of their respective floors which they take.
In an affinity mode for a stacking diagram, the coloring is by affinities, and the allocation block of a selected (or keyed off) department is colored blue while the allocation blocks of other departments are colored in their respective affinity colors relative to the blue department. The affinities scale can also be displayed on the screen, together with affinity numbers. Again, the user can derive important information at a glance, e.g. information such as the relative sizes and affinities of allocated departments, and can change the diagram as needed and see the results at a glance.
Following stacking, a blocking diagram is formed and displayed on the screen. As an example, the blocking diagram shows at the left side of the screen the floor plan of a particular floor, preferably with a scaled grid, and shows on the right-hand side a column of rows each pertaining to a department. Again, the system can show the blocking diagram in a priority color mode or in an affinity color mode. In the priority (or "department") color mode the system shows the number blocks of the departments (at the right-hand side of the screen) in the respective priority colors, and shows in the same color an allocation block at the left-hand side of the screen, at a place on the floor and over a portion of the floor corresponding to the space requirements of the department. In an affinities color mode, the blocking diagram shows the allocation block of a selected (keyed off) department in blue and the affinities blocks of the other departments, in the colors indicative of the affinities of the other departments to the blue colored department, again allowing the user to derive important information at a glance at the screen, and to change the blocking diagram allocations as needed and see the results at a glance.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a system and a method utilizing color displays which make space planning/facilities management particularly convenient and efficacious. Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description below, when read in conjunction with the drawings.